Symbols of love

There are 2 things I wear each and every day. My wedding ring and my Mothers ring. Knowing that I have these to wear as a constant is not only comforting but it's also a beautiful reminder of the 2 people I love most in this world. I liken my wedding ring as an old rugged canvas cloth. It shelters, provides security, protects and is a safe haven from storms, it's strong and stable.....just like my marriage. The other more delicate ring which I recently and most joyfully received after my Mother passed away is like a quilt to me, cuddly, warm, fuzzy, soft, handmade and comforting..... like my Mom's love was for me.

You may have guessed it, I'm an old sentimental fool and these two symbols of love keep me confident in not only knowing that I love completely but I am also loved in return. What could be better than that in this life? Beats me if I know!

Sweet and Beautiful Alli

A pretty page for a

pretty girl

Shea update and other news

For my friends who would like to be updated on my lovely niece Shea, and her ongoing progress, here is her very own Shea Blog with pictures and a journal.

She would love to hear from you and if you are so inclined to leave her a message it's really easy. Just go to her guestbook and sign in ;)

On another note....I finally went back to my treadmill routine!! This past year was the longest I ever stepped out of it. 3 months of lack of motivation. It feels good to be back in the groove again. I really forgot how good it makes me feels.

Well, I received my new car. It's an adjustment but not a hard one. The Acadia has more umph than the Envoy and feels more like a muscle SUV. Bigger tires and a sportier fells to it. It has a ton of really cool bells and whistles. One in particular is a refection of the dash projected onto the windshield. I guess this will give me no excuses for speeding now...lol The doo dads will take me a year to figure out.

When I first had it delivered and before I ever sat in it, it was involved in an accident. :0 In a parking lot with a parked car. The person who delivered it didn't see the little white 2 seater BMW (expensive) car next to him. The bad news is her spoiler is cashed and will probably cost about $2000 to replace (glad for insurance). A coincidence to the whole mess is the owner of the car knows Dean's daughter. The good news to come out of this is that scratch is not a scratch on mine but rather the rubber from her bumper . It came off with a little elbow and fingernail action. No repairs for me :)

This is what had me full of delight yesterday afternoon..... a little birdie called a ruby capped king something or other. He kept tapping at the window like he wanted in. As true to Colleen fashion, I grabbed my camera to get some convenient close ups of the little fellow To my amazement it looked like he was starting to pose for me. It was so dang cute!

I caught this series of shots and upon later reflection, I don't think he was posing at all. Is what he's doing equivalent to "flipping me the bird"??? I guess I should be used to it by now, I mean...it has happened before from my total addiction of putting the lens to the eye thing. NO I won't be posting those pictures either!! You know who you are...LOL

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!
My little Irish dude!

Something to ponder

I found this incredible site Tera's Wish , whereas, through her workshops she offers challenges to the self-proclaimed artist in having them think like an artist. Some of her ideas, statements and thought provoking questions and answers are to enable or jump starts the process of creating. Her suggestions make you think about exploring different avenues in order to tap into the creative process as well as solutions to overcoming the obstacles that prevail every artist who wants to create something unique in their lives. Creating things for an artist is to express something about themselves to share their perspectives on life or it can be as simplistic as to feed their inner soul by letting loose their imagination and giving freedom to their dreams. Below is a quote from her site that resonates to me:

Creativity

"Creativity is generally defined as the process of creating or the intellectual process of creating or being inventive. Creativity is usually referred to in the context of art and craft, but in truth, creativity affects every facet of our lives. If you rearrange your furniture or cook a meal, you are using creativity. Sometimes creativity involves creating something wholly new, but usually it is an interpretive process -- your own version of something already in existence."

I find this statement to be extremely liberating on many levels, especially considering there are so many preconceived notions that we as artists mustn't copy another's work or it always needs to be fresh, new and inventive. In this phrase, I find that I have more freedom to pursue the essence of creating without labels or dictates. I can say I am an artist and even if it's not on paper or made from scratch, I live it by the very things I do or by the choices I make, like she says by "making a meal" or even in picking out a pillow for my couch! Ha what a revelation :P

I am an artist!

I am creative and

I live art everyday!!

How awesome is that!

Totally Syched!!

Envoy XL Denali-old car

New GMC Acadia

It's time to trade my car that I enjoyed so much these past 3 years!. Lease is up on it already and they don't make Envoy Xl Denali's anymore :( ... so Dean got a call on the new GMC Acadia and as it turns out it's a really good deal for trading up with no payments for 6 months :O. Coming to my drivway soon the black on black super awesome GMC Acadia!! Whoo Hoo!

Our Atlanta Meeting

Last week was good. Finally feeling like myself again after many days of being sick. All our meetings in Atlanta went well and were productive. So much work ahead of us.....

A picture of the process with Dean heading up the meeting at Urban Design Group offices.

New Stuff ;)

3 New pages

Little Autumn

Yearning to expose something

Yep....expose and bare it. My feet that is. Why you ask? Because it's snowing here and nothing brings home the idea of summer and goodtimes as a good ole pair of bare feet in sandles. Pure bliss. Camping... here we come! I can't wait for March 7th when season opens! I'm praying for NO presipitation by then!

News on our business venture

This is what we do. We are developers in the resort industry. This project is near and dear to our hearts. A labor of love for several years and it's now ready to launch. Lots of work ahead of us but it'll be worth it because the truth is this girl needs a place to shop, dine and get a massage!!!

This is home now

This lake is 5 minutes from my house. In the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. It doesn't get any better than this in my book of life!

Remembering the hood

I'm sharing with you the place I grew up, Chicago, Illinois. Although, I'm proud to be a Chicagoen I'm very glad to have moved away.

Most of my memories were good ones. The school across the street offered a wide variety of activities for us that ranged from dancing, tap, marching, my favorite gymnastics to volleyball and more. I took advantage of most all of them. I was always trying to figure out what gave me the most pleasure but also pushing myself in the attempt to discover what I could be good at. Gymnastics always came easy to me so I excelled there and it remained my first love. I went on to attend competitions and won a few. The best part is after finishing homework I could run over and stay until after dark when it all ended. This refuge allowed me to experience and feel like I had potential and self worth. It was an escape from daily chores and activities that didn't feed my inner passions.

Seeing these photos makes me think of all the years of childhood experiences and the highs and lows of growing up.

The time an airplane crashed right next to our house missing it by just feet. When it made headline news and I was smoking a cigarette for the world to see. Yes, on the front page! Yes, I got caught and yes, I quit.

All the years of playing softball, running track and oh I can never forget that wonderful pool to cool off and compete in swim races in those dog days of summer. The hill in the park that offered sledding in the winter months and right below it the skating ring. From day camp counseling to just hanging out as a teenager. The park offered up so many activities that it was hard for me not to try them all. All good stuff, although there was another side of living in Chicago....the segregation issues, the gangs and drugs living near an airport. Unfortunately the neighborhood never recovered from these influences. While I was visiting and taking pictures in 2007 a young Mother who now lives in Sophie's house asked if I needed help with anything. Maybe she thought I was a reporter? When I told her who I was she filled me in on a number of changes in the hood and why. One was the sign below the street sign named "Lita Divita" . Curious as to the second naming she proceeded to tell me that a little girl around 8 years old was shot and killed while crossing the street. Caught in the fray by accident from an apparent gang/drug related issue. They also built a fence around the school after this incident. How sad. I asked her a little more and then shared with her my experiences. She said a lot has changed and that she grew up there a few blocks away but loves the neighborhood, her family and roots are there. She said she would still risk the occassional gunshots that happen in order to stay where she was raised and live where it feels familiar. I personally never felt that way about my roots and especially if there was danger lurking at any moment. She mentioned there was a time where she heard guns firing and grabed her children away from the front window in case of a stray bullet. How scary is that!! It's sad to see this kind of change but I suppose it was inevitable. If I could, I wouldn't change where I lived. This in part has helped shape who I am today but deep down I sometimes wonder that maybe a simple life, one more rural, like on a farm would have been more prefereable for me. But I believe their is purpose in everything and somehow it was meant to be that I was a city girl. Thank goodnes for personal choices in life. Where I live today is sublime. The only gunshots I hear ar the ones where a farmer may be defending his livestock from unwelcome attacks in the wild. Deep down I might wish that my neighborhood would stay the same...like walking through a time capsale but the reality is everything must change. My only wish is that it would change into being a safer place for those who live there now. To the people who are compelled to or choose to stay for whatever reason, this to will pass in time but my prayer is that you are in for a positive turnaround. A place that stills the fears of danger and affords a more peaceful way of life. One can only hope.

Inspired by a Video

6x6 Cards

Loving this size card and format. Fits inside a cd envelope! Mine will be vellum

Not for the faint of heart

Something is very suspicious at the Moses residence. Woke up and discovered a opossum looking straight in the window of our living room. At first it looked sureal, then upon closer inspection all the while trying to calm my Lhasa Apso down (the non-sporting type???) who would have loved to take a chunck out of him, I proceeded to bang at the window to get him to scram. I thought just maybe it was like the movie "Over the Hedge" you know where the opossum plays dead for some food on the truck.

No luck and no movement. Gosh darn! Now this means (I) ? have to remove the (by now I'm pretty sure dead) UGLY creature! Oh, Dean....... I holler to get his attention from another room. Please come here? What he says.... I responde "you have to see it for yourself. As he looks at animal he says "are you sure it's not playing opossum? Oh I think I'm sure...It's eyes arn't even blinking ....hmmm I wonder to myself "do they have eyelids". In any case the decision was made to just leave him there for awhile and that should certainly give us the answer Dead or Not dead??? ( more like Dean didn't want to do it right now).

Eight hours later hubby picks him up by the tail and proceeds to tell me that we are going to carry the carcas to the office in the morning in the back of the truck (enclosed truck) Oh me, why did he have to say that? That evening slumber entailed some rather non-amusing nightmares of this thing coming alive jumping out of the bag in the truck while we're driving! ATTACK of the not so dead opossum who knew how to play dead better than all his peers!! MY Vision Seemed pretty real to me as far as dreams go. I wish the story would end here but to add even more to the saga...Dean proceeds to tell me that he doesn't think the animal crawled there to die. He said that by the way the animal was laying and how there were no blood droppings to the final site ( who knew DH- a wanna be forensic scientist) "Nope I think he was put there by somebody". Did I really have to know that too???? Who would play such a dirty joke (not so funny) on us? Now I'm wondering what's next on the pranksters agenda before I have my morning coffee? Is this how it is in mountain living? I guess a no tresspassing sign doesn't mean anything to them. Oh wait maybe someone who does something like this can't read. One things for sure, it's officially time to lock our doors and maybe let my little Scooter boy who thinks he's a rottweiller have at-em. One final note of insult....Dean saying have you ever eaten opossum...they're fatty but good. Maybe we'll cook him up for lunch. all said while I'm recovering from severe gastroenteristis....lovely Dean Why don't you just shoot me now!!!

My other valentine

This is how Scoot looked after picking him up from his groomer yesterday. That bow is so dang CUTE! Too bad he hates them and fussed all night with it to get it out. It did manage to stay in until this morning.

I guess It's all for the better since he's a boy and one could easily mistaken him for the other gender, and have. I guess he needs a more masculine apparel like maybe a scarf ? Boy, do I get grief for letting them put bows in his hair..and then go on bragging about it...lol

Myabe they're right? He really doesn't look too happy about this!

Scrap Happy

Couple of pages done over the weekend. Riding that inspiration train to the end of the line, to the enevitably that it will come to a stop and I'll have to wait at the station for another train or hijack one (another term for scraplift) to jump start that pleasure ride all over again. All you creative scrappers and artists out there know exactly what I mean. The dreaded empty black hole of scrappers block..... For now..... I'll just think like Scarlett O'Hara did when she said

"I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow" ...lol